Barcelona Day 2: Vettel stays on top

Sebastian Vettel led the second day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya today.

He improved on yesterday’s fastest lap by more than a second, with a 1.23.315 today. Jaime Alguersuari continued his impressive form by finishing 2nd and only 0.2 seconds off Vettel. Local fans impressively filled the grandstands to see Fernando Alonso, who was 3rd.

It wasn’t clear sailing for the Spaniard, though, as the Ferrari suffered two failures across the day. Early on he stopped at Turn 4 with an electrical problem, and later was delayed by another hitch.

Rubens Barrichello and Nick Heidfeld’s last gasp laps put them up to 4th and 5th respectively. Kamui Kobayashi was 6th, while a 1-lap rungot Nico Rosberg 7th place.

It was a troubled day for McLaren. A hydraulic problem kept Jenson Button in the pits in the morning, then he managed only 54 laps across the day to get 8th position. Paul di Resta was 9th, after spinning into the gravel at Turn 1 after a throttle problem.

Heikki Kovalainen was hindered by mechanical issues, and was 10th. The second Renault of Petrov was 11th, while Vitantonio Liuzzi was 12th testing for Hispania, and Timo Glock was 13th. Lotus also tested Portugese-Angolan driver Ricardo Teixeira today. He did 26 laps, and was 8 seconds off the pace.